The New York Times

November 28, 2000

Putin Creates a Cabinet Post for Chechnya

By REUTERS

MOSCOW, Nov. 28 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin created a new cabinet post responsible for Chechnya on Tuesday, signaling his mounting frustration with the failure to end a costly war and refugee crisis in the breakaway province.

Putin issued a decree naming former construction official Vladimir Yelagin a minister without portfolio, tasked with overseeing ``socio-economic development'' in Chechnya.

Kremlin Chechnya spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky made clear that Moscow was unhappy with reconstruction efforts under Akhmad Kadyrov, the Muslim cleric and one-time rebel guerrilla tapped to run the region after Russian forces took control.

``In recent months social-economic questions in Chechnya have either gone unresolved altogether, or were resolved inefficiently,'' Yastrzhembsky said.

Kadyrov's administration had made little progress, Yastrzhembsky said, blaming ``a variety of factors including some beyond its control.''

``One would like to express hope and certainty that Yelagin, known as an experienced manager and administrator, can achieve more effective coordination among federal executive organs on questions of cooperation with Kadyrov's administration,'' he added.

The move comes a week after Putin upbraided his military brass for slow progress, telling an annual meeting of generals: ``Long months are passing, the people are suffering and the anti-terrorist operation needs to be completed.''

Russia is still looking to end the war 14 months after its forces poured into Chechnya to crush pro-independence fighters Moscow blamed for attacks on Russian cities.

The Russian military has imposed control over virtually the entire region, but failed to stop rebel ambushes or catch the top rebel leaders, with whom it has ruled out political talks.

MONUMENTAL DESTRUCTION, WINTER BEGINNING

The destruction in Chechnya is monumental, and little has been done to repair it. Russian forces obliterated towns and villages in their path, especially the capital Grozny, once home to more than 400,000 people.

A second winter is beginning and nearly 200,000 people have yet to return from neighbouring Russian provinces, where many are living in railway cars or tented camps.

In Grozny, civilians are camped in cellars of bombed-out buildings with no heat or water. Russian officials and Chechens have complained that money sent to rebuild the devastated region has disappeared.

Yelagin's appointment restores the pecking order in place early this year, when Russia's top Chechnya official, Nikolai Koshman, held the rank of deputy prime minister in Moscow.

Koshman was left out of the new cabinet list after Putin's inauguration in May as part of an effort to give local ethnic Chechens more control over the region.

But little rebuilding has been achieved under Kadyrov, who has failed to win support from pro-independence rebels and has quarrelled acrimoniously with a rival pro-Moscow leader, Grozny mayor Bislan Gantamirov.

Gantamirov himself was convicted of stealing millions of dollars in reconstruction funds during a previous 1994-96 war.

Continuing violence has also hampered reconstruction efforts. Radio Russia, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation, reported that three electric engineers working on repairing cables were killed by a mine in Grozny on Tuesday.

Yastrzhembsky's office said two rebels were killed and five captured in a shootout in the town of Urus-Martan. Interfax news agency said at least one gunman was killed in Grozny in one of five attacks on Russian posts in the city in 24 hours.